M has been drawing us a LOT of pictures lately. Mostly they are just scribbles, but it’s still so cute. She’s always liked coloring and being creative at home. I knew that with her moving to a Montessori school she would not be bringing home the amount of “crafts” that she’d done at her previous school. The fall came and went and she hadn’t brought anything home. I brought it up at her parent/teacher conference – letting them know that she really likes making art. They assured me she has access to all of those things in her classroom and could choose to do so on her own. One of the principles of Montessori is that the child decides what they might like to “work” with at any given time. They are free to move about the classroom, using things they’ve received a lesson on. I finally asked M why she hadn’t colored or painted anything at school and she said she had not had a lesson on crayons or paint yet. I was pretty sure she didn’t need one, but confirmed with the teacher. And now that she knows – she’s drawing us stuff just about every day. I chose to open that can of worms! Her teachers and I had all told her she could ask for a lesson on anything, but I guess she didn’t want to ask. Lesson learned. Long story to say that when they bring art home from school they roll it up, put a piece of SCOTCH tape on it and put it in their backpack to take home. So of course this is what she wants to do with all her stuff from home. She also wants to wrap it up and “put it in a present.” I let her use the Christmas wrapping paper once but now that it’s in the attic (it took me a while to put away Christmas) I’ve encouraged her to decorate the back side of the paper and call that wrapping paper. Lately, she’s been making us tons of stuff and leaving it places (mostly on our nightstands, or in my purse). Here’s a photo of my nightstand. I’ve got one for each day of the week to open!

On another note, my little sweetheart was bitten pretty badly by her little sister yesterday. And how did she handle it? She reacted by hugging S, so she’ll learn that we don’t bite! How adorable! Of course that was right after she screamed bloody murder. I think I would have too – it looks like it hurt!